Archive for October, 2012

So I was inspired to write this entry after hearing Joy Behar call Honey Boo Boo (if anyone ever reads this in the future, I am super dating myself) fat on the Wendy Williams Show. When people seemed appalled she said it was because she is worried about the child’s health. Now as noble as that seems, no one seems to worry about the health of people of “normal” or even under weight people. It seems like health is an easy scapegoat for people to use to make fun of bigger people. How do you know those bigger people aren’t in fact living a healthy life style? For those that know me, I am not a small girl, but I eat three small meals a day (at most) and exercise at least two and a half hours a week. I know skinny people that only eat cheese burgers and soda and don’t gain a pound. I think people need to look less at the person and more how they live. Now I have never seen Honey Boo Boo’s show, but I have heard that her mother does not always have the most healthy food choices. If someone were to say zee is worried for Honey Boo Boo and her family (of all sizes) because eating a lot of processed/fried/et cetera foods can lead to health problems that are seen less in people that eat more plain vegetables and foods cooked less or broiled, boiled or baked then I think that would be much less size offensive.

Even the great Dr. Oz (please note the sarcasm).. well as I always say when I see him “Dr. Oz hates fat people!” Yes, even America’s nicest doctor is a dick. He had a show where he had a number of large women, very large even. These women were happy, sexy, confident and most of all healthy. They weighed multiple times as much as I do, but had no health problems related to their weight. Dr. Oz told them that if they didn’t want help with their weight, to get off the stage right then and there… and half of them just walked off. No goodbyes, no good lucks, no I am glad you are healthy now, no handshakes, no thank you for coming on the show, just get off my stage, fattie, if you don’t want to be skinny. His rationale for kicking these lovely ladies off the stage was because being fat has risk factors of things like diabetes. You might think “Hellz yeah, being fat is dangerous!”, but everyone seems to forget that everything has risk factors. If you are White or Asian, you have a greater risk of osteoporosis. Oh man, Dr. Oz, kick Asian and White (and especially part Asian, part White) people off your stage! African-Americans are more likely to be hypertensive. Off the stage with you! Though everything has risk factors, it doesn’t mean that you will get it. When you gain ten pounds, they don’t just hand you diabetes. You can be skinny and have many of the same problems as larger people.

As an aside, I feel obligated to point out something my best friend always tells me- Body Mass Index (BMI) is an arbitrary system invented during the Victorian Era as a random relation between height and weight. Because of this, a person 5’6 who is 200 pounds is the same BMI no matter if that is a person who is all fat cells (which is impossible) or if that person is a body builder with so little fat zee’s brain isn’t even cushioned. Now that doesn’t make much sense, does it?